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Matchups favored Jags

Join jaguars.com Senior Editor Vic Ketchman as he tackles the fans' tough questions.

Steve from Orange Park, FL:
I notice the Carolina Panthers are sixth in the league in average attendance, with not a very good record this year. Do you know how they accomplish this feat?

Vic: Don't use attendance rankings solely to form opinions about attendance because the rankings can be misleading. First of all, the attendance figure to which you are referring is for tickets distributed, not actual attendance, and the Panthers' tickets distributed figure is protected by PSLs. When forming an opinion on attendance, each situation has to be examined individually and on its own merits as it pertains to stadium capacity, percentage of sellouts, number of blackouts and whether or not PSLs are required. Actual attendance is good to know, too, but it's a difficult fact to acquire.

Christopher from Jacksonville:
Wow! Where did those six sacks come from?

Vic: The defensive line turned in a sensational performance. I expected the Jags to get some sacks yesterday and I said in the pregame radio show that the Jags would do a lot of blitzing because they saw that Colt McCoy is overly conscious about the rush and fades from it before it even gets there. That was a big factor in the sacks. He's not a stay-in-the-pocket-and-keep-your-eyes-downfield guy.

Zach from Jacksonville:
It was amazing to see how much the Browns were limited by Colt McCoy. The coaching staff does not trust him and for good reason. He is not the answer.

Vic: He's resourceful, instinctive and knows how to play the game, but his ceiling is very low because he lacks arm strength. When your quarterback has his physical limitations, you lose a significant part of your playbook and the field begins to shrink. That's what happened on Sunday.

Troy from Murrieta, CA:
Why wasn't the MJD fumble challenged? Seemed pretty clear the returner was down by contact when he recovered the ball.

Vic: It wasn't challenged because the replay supported the call on the field.

Terry from Leesburg, FL:
It's Sunday afternoon and, as a Jaguars fan, I would love to be watching them. My question is how are the televised games determined in each area? I live 38 miles north of Orlando and today if I want to watch football on television I must watch the Steelers and the Raiders. If Orlando is the secondary market for the Jaguars, why can't I watch their game? Last week, I had to watch the Dolphins, a team much farther from here. What gives? I am thankful for the in-game blog.

Vic: The TV affiliate in Orlando is required to show all Jaguars road games, but not their home games. The station manager down there would rather show "Leave it to Beaver" re-runs than a Jaguars game.

Rob from Brighton, UK:
I'm watching the Colts game and I'm worried. What if all football teams turn into the Colts; robotic passing, little contact, played in sterile conditions? I'm going to see the Browns play Pittsburgh and I can't wait. Real weather, physical football.

Vic: Take a look at Sunday's scores. This is the Colts' NFL. They invented it and it's going to stay that way for awhile. It's all offense all the time.

Greg from Lake Oswego, OR:
Any idea on the number of times an NFL team has won with a minus-five turnover differential?

Vic: The Jaguars became the first team since Oct. 8, 2007, to win despite making six turnovers and posting a minus-five turnover ratio. The last team to do so was Dallas, which won 25-24 over Buffalo in a Monday night game, despite five interceptions and a fumble lost on 10-8-07.

Andre from Jacksonville:
I'm watching the Patriots-Colts game and I have to ask you this question. Why does it seem mandatory for announcers to make excuses for Peyton Manning throwing an interception to lose the game? Is it too much to ask for them to acknowledge that he actually does throw terrible passes?

Vic: I heard it, too. Jim Nantz said something about Manning's arm being hit or getting hit by the rush, so I watched the replay they showed before they hurried out of the broadcast and I didn't see anybody touch him. He had a rusher to his right, but there wasn't anything menacing about it. He just threw the ball right to the Patriots defender without a receiver in the area. That's how I saw it. It was stunning. I was expecting nothing less than a game-tying field goal.

Daniel from Albania, Europe:
I was waiting and waiting and waiting for Mathis to get that pick you said he would. Didn't happen. What did you see in him that made you so sure he would get one?

Vic: The Browns picked on Rashean Mathis right from the start. Their game plan clearly targeted him. Then I saw that he was playing underneath the receiver. They call it trail technique. On the early deep ball, Mathis was in trail technique and he should've made the interception. He saw that McCoy didn't have the arm to beat him, which allowed Mathis to play the ball in the air because he knew he could close on it. That's a formula for getting an interception. It was right about the time that I made that comment in my blog that the Browns turned their attention away from Mathis. Their offensive coaches saw it, too. From that point on, they ran slants on Mathis, to make sure the receiver got underneath him.

Shane from Orange Park, FL:
Who on the defensive line gets your game ball?

Vic: It would be easy to split and give half to Terrance Knighton and half to Tyson Alualu, but I'm gonna give it all to Knighton because every time I looked up, I saw him. He's the guy who nearly had the sack on the play that resulted in a shovel-pass touchdown to Peyton Hillis. Knighton was dominant.

Jason from Brooklyn, NY:
From a rules standpoint, why does it make sense that it is a penalty to kick off out of bounds but not a penalty if you punt the ball out of bounds?

Vic: Coffin-corner punting is considered to be an art. It's a major part of the field-position game and it requires skill to execute. It adds to the suspense of the game. What skill is required to kick a ball on a tee out of bounds? If that was permitted, we'd never have a kickoff return. Every drive would start near or inside the 10-yard line.

Robin from Marquette, MI:
I'm a fan away at college. I watched the game on TV yesterday and it seemed like in the first half Garrard's passes were near perfect, but in the second half many were late, thrown behind or underthrown. Did something happen to him or was there a change in what the Browns were doing on defense?

Vic: Do you get the same grades on all of your tests?

Dee from Jacksonville:
Does our defense have the ability to play like that every week, or are the Browns that inept at moving the ball?

Vic: In my "10 things" column on Friday, the number one thing was "stop the run." Once the Jaguars did that, the Browns were dead offensively. Eric Mangini said it after the game. He said it was a run-the-ball, stop-the-run game for the Browns and they did neither. The Jaguars will be facing a team this week that isn't one-dimensional.

Eric from Princeton, NJ:
Garrard led a game-tying drive in the fourth quarter and Jones-Drew led the winning drive a few minutes later. This season, the two have combined to win four games on late drives against the Broncos, Colts, Texans and Browns. The Jaguars are officially a crunch-time team.

Vic: It's what you wanna be. Stats are for losers. Tell me what a team does at crunch time.

Chris from Mansfield, TX:
I think we all need to thank the Bills for taking C.J. Spiller, ensuring the Jaguars would take Tyson Alualu.

Vic: The draft is that fragile. Good thinking.

Luis from Fruit Cove, FL:
With the Texans nose-diving and the Titans having to deal with the Vince Young fiasco, do you think the race for first place is down to just the Jags and the Colts? Or are the Titans likely to regain lost ground?

Vic: I think the Texans are gone. I said that a week ago. Their schedule is a killer. The race, in my opinion, is down to the Colts, Jags and Titans. Do not count the Titans out. With Young out, they'll really turn to the running game now, and that might make them a better team. The big thing the Titans have going for them is that they will play against division opponents in five of their final six games. They can win it all by winning those head-to-head games. We've got a long way to go.

George from Jacksonville:
The defense was stunning. What was done differently this week?

Vic: The matchups favored the Jags. As I looked at it, it became obvious that the Jags defense would play well. Cleveland is a power running team, but the strength of the Jaguars defense is inside. The Jags' greatest weakness on defense was its inability to deny passes over the top, but the Browns quarterback doesn't have the arm to get over the top. Never scheme schemes. Always scheme personnel.

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